Coca-Cola and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

This Sunday, Nov. 9, marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Coca-Cola played a small but symbolic role in the dramatic events of 1989, giving East Germans an early taste of democracy.

Coca-Cola
and Berlin have long enjoyed a special relationship. Perhaps it began in 1961,
with Billy Wilder’s hit comedy, One, Two, Three. Shot at the Berlin-based
Coca-Cola bottler in Lichterfelde, the film told the story of a senior-ranking
Coke executive based in West Berlin.

When the wall
came down in 1989, signaling an end to nearly 30 years of division, Coca-Cola
provided another memorable image. Among the millions of pictures taken in those
historic days, one shows two men throwing cartons of Coca-Cola bottles over
the wall -- a small distance for them, but a huge one for Coca-Cola.

One of the
men pictured (pictured on the left) was Paul-Gerhard Ritter, managing director of the
Coca-Cola bottler in Lichterfelde. He understood that the Cold War was coming
to an end and signaling the beginning of a new era.

So, only a
few hours after the wall came down, he had trucks filled with Coca-Cola driving
to Kudamm to meet people from East Berlin as they rushed to enter the long-forbidden
western side of the city.
Within two hours, three trucks were empty.

Ritter then
stood with an employee at Glienicke Bridge, the place where agents and
prisoners were exchanged during the Cold War, in order to personally serve a
Coke to visitors from his home town.

When a German Democratic Republic (GDR)
guard noticed this, he shouted, “Hey, I want one as well!”

Ritter knew
exactly what he was doing. He came from the East, attending a school in the GDR
until he was eight. However, in 1959, before the Wall was built, his family moved
to West Berlin. Ritter did not waste time with questions – he acted. Due to the
hard work and swift action of Coke employees like Ritter, in the first week
after the fall of the Wall, two million people drank a toast to freedom with a
Coke.

It was a
time of rapid, bold decisions. A time of improvised offices at the counters of
hotel bars, when unreliable telephone connections caused the temporary return
of the telegram.

In the Billy
Wilder film, the Coca-Cola executive dreams of selling Coke in East Germany. This
dream came true: By January 1990, it was
possible to buy Coke products in GDR currency. Two months later, Coca-Cola
Erfrischungsgetränke GmbH was set up as a separate company in East Germany.

Today Coca-Cola
Erfrischungsgetränke AG operates 10 sites and four bottling plants in the former East Germany.
And in March 2013, Coke's Germany business unit headquarters moved to Stralauer
Allee, a historic site in the old East Berlin where the wall once stood.

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest beverage company, offering over 500 brands to people in more than 200 countries. Of our 21 billion-dollar brands, 19 are available in lower- or no-sugar options to help people moderate their consumption of added sugar. In addition to our namesake Coca-Cola drinks, some of our leading brands around the world include: AdeS soy-based beverages, Ayataka green tea, Dasani waters, Del Valle juices and nectars, Fanta, Georgia coffee, Gold Peak teas and coffees, Honest Tea, Minute Maid juices, Powerade sports drinks, Simply juices, smartwater, Sprite, vitaminwater, and Zico coconut water. At Coca-Cola, we’re serious about making positive contributions to the world. That starts with reducing sugar in our drinks and continuing to introduce new ones with added benefits. It also means continuously working to reduce our environmental impact, creating rewarding careers for our associates and bringing economic opportunity wherever we operate. Together with our bottling partners, we employ more than 700,000 people around the world.